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Cheese Fondu

A baked cheese casserole with bread crumbs, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Fondu

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan until it is just about to boil.

  2. Add the bread crumbs to the hot milk and stir well.

  3. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and then mix in the cheese and salt.

  4. Combine the cheese mixture with the bread crumb mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites gently.

  2. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  3. Serve immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites lift the mixture and give it an airy, puffed structure as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the hot milk and thicken the mixture, giving it body.
Cheese
Provides flavor and richness, and melts into the base for a creamy texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the bread crumbs into a smooth base.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air only while whipped. Heavy stirring knocks that air out, so the fondue will bake flat and dense instead of light and puffed.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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